SPENCERVILLE-The Spencerville Bearcats enjoyed their first home game in over two weeks last Friday when they hosted Allen East. The Bearcats looked to keep their momentum going on Friday when they take on LCC.
LCC comes in at 5-2 on the season and Scott Palte has been on a hot streak since their opening week loss against Shawnee have went 5-1 in the last 6 weeks with the loss coming against high-powered Bluffton.
“I feel we have improved as the season has progressed,” said LCC head coach Scott Palte. “We have played 5 sophomores and 2 freshmen on offense the past 2 weeks. It’s been a learning experience for them but we have seen improvement each week. Eddie White started at RB last week and did a really good job. He’s a big kid, 200lbs, and continues to learn how to use his size.”
The Spencerville Bearcats have seemed to turn a corner in year two of the Kyle Koenig era as now at 4-3 and a chance to get not just one but potentially two home playoff games the Bearcats were quite pleased with their effort last week against Allen East.
“I think we saw a different attitude and mindset from the previous weeks,” said Spencerville head coach Kyle Koenig. “We put a big focus on making sure that we focus on things one play at a time and I think our guys bought into that notion and really did a great job of not letting previous plays impact our next one.”
For LCC all eyes will be on the running back room as Matthew Quatman was out with an injury in their 56-0 win last week against Jefferson. If he can’t go expect brother Michael Quatman to receive the bulk of the carries at the running back position.
To no one’s surprise it’s another Parker at the QB position and that is Brady Parker. Parker is a duel threat QB as he has completed 45 of 92 passes for 772 yards with nine touchdowns and four interceptions but also has 56 carries for 342 yards and four touchdowns on the season.
“Brady has done a good job,” said Palte. “He missed a lot of time last year with injury so he didn’t get as much experience as we would have liked. Early in the season was an adjustment for him with the speed of varsity football. But he has done a good job of getting better each week in regards to leading the offense and reading defenses. He’s a very talented young man.”
Spencerville perhaps had their best performance in the run game on the season as Zach Looser, Grady Smith, and Will Sensabaugh all turned great performances on the ground. They will have to do that again this week to beat the T-Birds.
“All three of our backs have done a great job all year and up until last week we would see great performances from one or two at a time, but last week all three did a tremendous job,” said Koenig. “They ran extremely hard, and I am very happy that they were able to get it rolling last week. Having confidence in all of them and seeing it on the field really makes it easy on us coaches sending in plays knowing that any one of them could get things going for us.”
As of right now this would be a battle of potential playoff teams as LCC sits at 9th spot in the D7 region 26 rankings while Spencerville sits at 6th spot in the D6 region 22 rankings and would host Attica Seneca East if the season ended last week.
“It always adds a bit more excitement when you’re playing for something at the end of the year instead of getting ready for next year,” said Palte. “Little easier to get the kids to focus when they know they are playing to get into week 11 and the possibility of hosting a playoff game. Even more intensity is involved when both teams are in the hunt for the playoffs and higher seeding.”
The Bearcats according to Drew Pasteur Fantastic 50 rankings that predicts games of every school had Spencerville going 1-9 on the season. However the Bearcats have proved the doubters wrong by going 4-3 on the season so far and are looking for more.
“I think our guys have done a great job of just trying to get better each day,” commented Koenig. “Each week I have seen growth and maturity in this team, and I have seen them come together as a group through some tough times. At the end of the Fort Loramie game, I think you saw us start to get that confidence back from the first three games of the season and we were able to build on it last week. Now we have to try and build off of last week this week.”
Spencerville will look to keep their 3-prong attack in the running back room going along with the hope of getting freshman Kolton Grigsby back in the lineup this week.
Both teams kept the keys to victory simple this week.
“I have been impressed by the improvement they have shown each week and the effort level I watched on film and in person last week vs Allen East,” concluded Palte. “Their kids really compete and play hard. A real tribute to Coach Koenig and his staff and the great job they have done. As for what to expect, they like to run the football and be physical. Defensively, they are aggressive and really attack the offense. We expect that same mentality on Friday and need to match that intensity to be successful.”
“LCC is a very good football team,” said Koenig. “They have athletes all over the field and they are well coached. They do some different things that we have not seen much of before with their formations. They are going to try and use those athletes to get to the outside, they have a smart kid at Quarterback, and they are going to take deep shots when they can.”
“The key for us is that we need to control the line of scrimmage and time of possession.” Concluded Koenig. “We did a great job of this last week going on some long drives that drained the clock, and I think it really helped our defense out. I also think we are going to have to be solid in the backend and stay disciplined to what we are doing. Lastly, we need to set the edge on the defensive side of the ball. They are going to try and get on the outside of our defense, so we need to do a good job with our ends and outside backers to make sure we force things back inside to where our help is.”
If you can’t make it to the game tune in to Zsports 3 as Nate Stidham and Shane Falke will have all the action live from Memorial Field with the pregame show at 6:30pm followed by kickoff at 7pm.
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